Analysis - What an extraordinary night

The extract is taken from the end of Virginia Wolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. It is about a news brought by Sir Bradshaws, a guest at Clarissa's part. The 1st sequence is about Clarissa's reaction of Septimus W. Smith's suicide. In her mind she imagines the physique situation when his body enters in contact with the earth and immediately the archetypal question "why had he done it?". The technique adopted to express all these thoughts is the interior monologue which helps the reader to see the situation and to feel close Clarissa's mind. In the 2nd sequence the reader perceives the contrast between Clarissa's thought (inner perception) and external reality (the people at the party). In this passage is expressed Clarissa's life and death's conception, which are tightly linked. People must find a sense in them life and must share it with others otherwise there is the danger to be alone. In front of this situation someone resists while others which "feeling the impossibility to reaching the centre" evaded them, as Septimus has done. In the 3rd sequence Clarissa imagines the situation if Semptimus goes to Sir Bradshaws, a psychiatrist. Psychiatrist's role is to make a person to speck and it is difficult because implies to watch in the deep of mind and to face the life without masks. In 4th sequence through the technique of interior monologue is presented an other reflection about life by Clarissa. The life, sometime, arouses terror in the people and someone is not able to going on and living. Clarissa is different by Septimus because she doesn't kill herself for the reason that she achieves what she wants by life (she had wanted success). She has the sense of security given by her husband (she loved Peter but she married Richard to have success). In the 5th sequence Clarissa's mind go back to past when she was young, at Burton with the interior monologue are expressed her emotions: she had never been so happy, she lose herself in the process of living; and in the present when she could not sleep in London she thinks at these moments. In the 6th sequence Clarissa, while is observing the sky, is fascinated by a old woman who going to bad alone. In contrast with Clarissa's thoughts there is the reality highlighted by clock's strikes. Here in again underline the difference between Clarissa and Septimus, she is going on to live her life while he is died.